Attraction and Trust
by Master-Magician
Summary: An ordinary woman would have been angry at worst, upset in the least, at what Maddie was seeing, but that wasn't how Maddie felt. Maybe just a tiny bit confused, but otherwise she just didn't feel like anything was wrong. It was like what her mind said she was seeing was perfectly normal.


**Episode three wound up being even better than I was expecting. Favorite part has to be the trio sharing the bed toward the end. After that, and a few other scenes, has pretty much converted me to the Ben/Ryn/Maddie poly ship. More ideas to come.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

Maddie had to admit, this whole experience thus far had been enlightening. There were still so many questions swirling around in her head she wanted to ask Ryn about her people, and herself too, but Maddie knew they were nearing the limits of Ryn's patience.

Hopefully Xander came up with something on his end, otherwise they were going to have an angry Ryn on their hands. After having a taste of the mermaid's strength, on land no less, Maddie had no desire to be on the receiving end of Ryn's frustration again. Her arm was still sore, but Ryn seemed apologetic. At least as apologetic as a mermaid learning human behaviors and customs could be.

If a mildly injured arm was the worst thing to happen to them, Maddie was happy to call this… thing they had, a win.

Come to think of it, what exactly was this? Sure, meeting Ryn may have been an enormous scientific discovery for Maddie and Ben, but they were going pretty far out of their way for a near stranger. Especially, if it was true the government was behind the missing man and mermaid.

Perhaps it had something to do with this strange pull Maddie had to the mermaid, the same allure Ben had confessed to sensing as well. It made no sense though, Maddie had never thought she was attracted to women, and yet the feeling remained.

Once again, Maddie had to remind herself this was no woman she and Ben were dealing with. This was not even a human, female yes, but obviously not human.

Still, facts were facts, and it all made Maddie more than a little confused.

Maddie filed away her thoughts for another time when she noticed something strange.

Ben had been doing most of the actual examination, switching over to taking Ryn's measurements less than a minute ago. The whole while Ryn had been quiet and mostly indifferent, her gaze watching Ben's actions but allowing him to do his work.

That came to an abrupt stop when Ryn's hands slowly moved forward to touch Ben's wrists. He immediately stopped, but Ryn didn't. Her fingers continued their ascent up Ben's arms slowly, her otherworldly eyes following in her touch's wake.

Ben shot Maddie a bewildered look, but she didn't know what was going on either.

Ryn wasn't doing anything that appeared threatening. In fact, if Maddie didn't know better, she might say the mermaid was feeling up her boyfriend's muscles. Ryn's quest led her hands up Ben's arms, then his shoulders, pausing briefly on his chest, before ascending and finally coming to a stop with her fingertips on his cheeks.

While Ryn's eyes locked upon Ben's, Maddie was trying to figure out the other female's intentions. To a human, her behavior was deeply intimate, but to a mermaid? Neither Maddie nor Ben had enough information to say one way or the other. The only thing they knew for sure was that mermaid and human were two very different species.

Ryn had been cooperative thus far, so as long was Ryn seemed calm and peaceful, Maddie had no problem humoring her.

As it turned out, Ryn's behavior was every bit as intimate as a human. Maddie figured this one out when Ryn began to move forward, Ben's face still in her hands, their lips mere inches apart.

An ordinary woman would have been angry at worst, upset in the least, at what Maddie was seeing, but that wasn't how Maddie felt. Maybe just a tiny bit confused, but otherwise she just didn't feel like anything was wrong. It was like what her mind said she was seeing was perfectly normal.

The feeling persisted even after Ryn and Ben's lips made contact.

Maddie was watching her boyfriend kissing another, and she wasn't perturbed in this slightest. Why wasn't she mad? She felt almost… jealous.

At some point, Maddie had switched off the camera. With the device off and completely forgotten, she found herself moving forward to stand beside the others. With Ben occupying the stool, Maddie simply dropped to one knee on Ryn's right side.

The man and mermaid had since parted. Ben was sucking in deep breaths of air, while Ryn was looking at him with the same curiosity mixed with something unknown stare she often wore. Her hands still held Ben's face, but it was obvious he had no wish to be free from her touch.

Maddie didn't know what she was doing, she just acted on what she felt. Still kneeling on the floor, she reached a single hand up to place on Ryn's bare knee.

Ryn's countenance shifted away from Ben and focused fully on Maddie. With one hand still on Ben's cheek, Ryn moved her other to gently cup Maddie's jaw. The contact was surprisingly delicate coming from a person who could hurl Maddie across the room if she so wished.

As Ryn bent toward her, Maddie found herself hoping she didn't stop. With her being on the floor and Ryn on the chair, the mermaid had a far way to lean down so Maddie sat up to make up the difference.

Maddie had zero idea what to expect, but whatever it might have been were blown clear from the water when she felt the mermaid's lips touch hers. Ryn's lack of experience was evident, but just the mere feeling of her kiss was enough to sent shivers down Maddie's spine, and fireworks through her brain.

It felt like hours, just like all those stupid cliché movies, but it had to be a few seconds. Maddie was left gasping for air and unable to form a coherent sentence much like her boyfriend less than two feet away.

Ben was first to recover, he cleared his throat with a sharp noise and went back to his work, all the while avoiding Ryn and Maddie's eyes. Maddie herself was no better, she did the same while retrieving the video camera and switching it back on.

What just happened? Why did Maddie allow herself to do that, and why did she let Ben? Maddie knew the mermaid had some kind of draw that just pulled her in but she couldn't help but wonder how far it went. What could Ryn make them do, and was Ryn even aware she had such power over them? The possibilities were troubling to say the least.

Way too many questions and no answers to be found yet, just like almost everything about Ryn.

* * *

In retrospect, following Ben outside while he answered the call from Xander had been a horribly stupid mistake. At the time, Maddie had been worried, and a little scared, of being alone with Ryn again after what happened not so long ago.

Now Ryn was missing, and it was all Maddie's fault.

Ben hid it well, but Maddie knew him enough to know when he was worried. Not only was Ryn alone in a world of humans, anyone who tried to hurt her, accident or not, would meet a painful end. The last thing Ryn needed was to attract more attention.

One borderline frantic search of Bristol Cove later, Ryn was found. As if things could get any worse, she was attending a crowded pool party. If Ryn fell in the water… it was a possibility that filled Maddie with equal parts horror and terror.

Ryn might be abnormally heavy for her size, but that didn't matter if she was knocked off balance. This coupled with standing too close to the edge of the pool was a recipe for disaster. One tiny push and this party was going to take a ghastly turn.

Maddie was forcing her way through the crowd when the unthinkable happened.

Somebody bumped into Ryn, making her stumble and lose her footing.

Maddie felt her heart nearly stop when she saw Ryn make contact with the water. She could only watch in utter dread and wait for the inevitable. Her mind was already scrambling to find a way to get her out of here without a massacre.

As for the party, maybe Maddie could scream fire? Bad idea, even if that worked, some people might fall in the pool in the ensuing chaos.

As if by divine miracle from above, Ryn resurfaced looking just as normal as before. No scales, no claws, no sharp teeth, no signs of her transformation whatsoever. Shouldn't it have started by now?

When she started hearing the police sirens, Maddie decided not to question her good fortune and rushed over to help the mermaid out of the water. Maddie's luck continued to hold as Ryn followed without struggle while Maddie led her through the scattering partygoers, the police closing in.

Ben was lost somewhere in the crowd, but Maddie knew he would catch up later. She could always text or call, but right now she needed to get Ryn somewhere safe.

It couldn't have been a coincidence that Ryn's picture was posted on the internet and cops show up at the same party. This alone would mean nothing, but what Maddie heard and saw from her dad the other day was more than enough to connect the dots.

This was no simple breaking up of a teenager party, this was a manhunt for Ryn.

Safe wound up being an unoccupied hotel room. Ushering Ryn inside, Maddie locked the door behind them and made to close off the curtains. All the while attempting to get Ryn to understand the danger she was in. At least that managed to sink in moderately quick, if only Ryn's patience wasn't as flimsy as a house of cards.

If anything good came from this debacle, it was that they discovered freshwater doesn't trigger Ryn's change. She had to have ocean water for it to actually work. The biologist in Maddie pondered if it was something in the salt that reacted to their physiology. Seeing as how Ryn was so adamant about not going back into the water, maybe they could figure out what it was her body needed. It may be beyond them, or it might be stupidly simple, still an interesting avenue of thought to pursue later.

"Trust me, you're safer here." Maddie had to again stop Ryn from walking out the front door. If only Maddie could get her to just trust them.

"Trust?" Yet another human concept that was totally alien to Ryn. Abstract ideas were something she had a lot of trouble with, but she still picked up on them quickly.

"I say something, and it's true." Maddie struggled to explain. "I promise."

"No, you not look for sister."

"We are, Ryn." If only they could get her to understand it wasn't just the two of them looking, and the needle in the proverbial haystack was massive. "We have people helping us." Ryn didn't look convinced at all. "If you believe me, this is trust."

At Ryn's look, Maddie tried to come up with something to better explain something so metaphysical.

"It's an idea, umm… something we believe? Freedom. Love. What you feel for your sister." Maddie was able to make some progress when she used Ryn's sister as an example.

"Trust." Ryn repeated the word.

Maddie nodded in agreement.

"This is hard." Ryn admitted.

"Yes." Maddie spoke softly. "Very hard."

"Some people I trust." Ryn's tone was anything but friendly in that moment. "Some people hurt me."

"That's right." Maddie didn't want to admit it, but Ryn couldn't be more right.

"Like man in car."

"Yes." Maddie hesitated, but felt the need to ask anyway. "He hurt you? The man in the car?"

"He try." The sheer iciness of Ryn's voice was a good reminder that this was a predator standing before Maddie, not a human woman.

It saddened Maddie greatly that Ryn had to go through that. Even if the man hadn't been able to actually do anything, the experience could easily have colored Ryn's views on all humans. For all Maddie knew, it did, and she and Ben were the only exceptions in Ryn's eyes. Even if Ryn didn't realize it, she was showing trust to the two humans thus far, small amounts but trust nonetheless.

"Um, let's dry you off." Maddie felt silly saying something like that to a mermaid, but she needed something to change the subject and focus on.

"You don't have to run away from us." Finding a convenient towel nearby, Maddie set to work unbuttoning Ryn's borrowed blouse.

Maddie's task was cut short, along with her mind, when Ryn reached up to cup Maddie's cheek. It was eerily familiar to earlier back at the rescue center earlier that morning.

"You are afraid… of me." Ryn caressed the taller woman's cheek while locking her eyes onto Maddie's darker orbs.

Ryn was… not wrong, somewhat. Maddie was indeed scared, but not exactly of Ryn. Her fear lay in this mysterious pull Ryn had over Maddie and her boyfriend. Maddie had no way to explain it, and no way to know why she was feeling this way. It was all an unknown, and one of the greatest fears of humans was the unknown.

At first, Maddie thought Ryn was going to lean up on her toes or pull Maddie down to her level for another kiss, she wore a similar expression to earlier. But Ryn's gaze turned down toward the floor, her hand sliding down to rest against Maddie's shoulder. Ryn's drenched cheek came to rest against Maddie's other shoulder, the mermaid leaning heavily against Maddie.

Just as sudden as the moment began, it ended when there was a sharp knock on the door followed by Ben's voice. The sound was enough to startle both Ryn and Maddie away from their embrace before anything else could happen, or if something else would happen.

* * *

Maddie was about sick of this roller-coaster of a day.

After collecting Ryn, and discovering how late it was, Ben decided that it was a bit late to be taking Ryn back to Helen's. If Maddie was alright with it, she'd stay the night with them. Something Maddie could find no objection to. What else was there they could do? Throw her on the street?

Of course, things in Bristol Cove just got worse. After meeting back up at the hotel, Ben confirmed Maddie's suspicions that the police, and Maddie's dad too, were indeed searching for Ryn. The worst part was that the police were absolutely right that Ryn was the killer. What they didn't understand was that she was not human and had killed in self-defense. As far as Maddie was concerned, Ryn was guilty of nothing.

Letting loose a heavy sigh, Maddie allowed herself to relax just a little. None of their problems today had been solved, but right now they were okay. She and Ben were back home, and Ryn was safe with them for the night. For the next ten hours, give or take, everything was alright.

With Ryn situated on the somewhat comfortable couch, Maddie crawled into bed alongside Ben. She was two seconds from shutting her eyes when she saw the strange look on Ben's face. He was looking at something behind her.

Maddie sat up a little and turned to find Ryn standing at the foot of their bed. Whatever was going through the mermaid's head was for Ryn alone to understand but to Maddie it was like she was trying to make some kind of decision.

Whatever mental debate she was waging ended when Ryn climbed into the bed with them. The mermaid crawled across the mattress only coming to a stop once between Maddie and Ben. Ryn looked at Ben for a few long moments before her stare shifted over to Maddie.

The couple could only stare in confusion at their houseguest's actions.

Only adding to the confusion was Ryn when she leaned down to Ben and planted a gentle kiss on his lips. Before Maddie could even process what she was watching, Ryn shifted over and gifted Maddie the same kiss.

The kiss back at the rescue center had been a little longer, more unsure, like a test. This one was quick, more like a peck rather than a true kiss.

A miniscule part of Maddie wondered if this was Ryn's way of saying 'good night'.

After giving the two kisses, Ryn turned over onto her back to lay down on the bedcovers between them, her eyes closing. Maddie waited a long minute to see what Ryn was going to do next, but the mermaid clearly had no intentions of moving.

Ben glanced over at Maddie who could only offer a shrug at this turn of events.

Feeling a little curious, and perhaps a bit daring, Maddie reached across Ryn to take Ben's hand in hers. Deciding to indulge Maddie, Ben laced his fingers with that of his girlfriend. Maddie slowly lowered their entwined hands to rest upon Ryn's middle.

Ryn was not fully asleep, Maddie could see as much from the mermaid's breathing. Maddie was careful to watch Ryn's reactions to their hands on her but Ryn merely drew in a deep breath before relaxing on the mattress.

It occurred to Maddie she had never seen Ryn actually take a breather and relax. She was always moving, always looking at something, or just doing something. Now she looked downright peaceful laying here in bed with them.

Maddie felt like an idiot for taking so long to comprehend what this was. This was Ryn feeling safe enough to lower all her guards and just relax between them while she slept. This was Ryn opening up in the only way she could think of.

This was Ryn trying to show trust.

Maddie had to forcible restrain her glee at this turn of events. It was tempting to move just a little and give Ryn a swift kiss like the one she'd given them both, but Maddie decided not to push her luck.

Tomorrow was a new day, and though their problems and questions remained, it would be easier to tackle them together rather than alone. With that in mind, Maddie allowed herself to close her eyes and drift away to dreamland.

* * *

 **That turned out a lot easier to be than I expected. Though I don't really like doing scenes we've already seen, I do make some exceptions.**

 **To anyone interested, I am open to ideas anybody would like to see.**


End file.
